Stare Way to Heaven?

Meet Braco, the Croatian gaze healer.

This is Braco. He stares. He may be the solution to your healthcare needs.

Braco (pronounced
BRAHT-zo) is a man from Zagreb, Croatia, who travels the world to
perform gazing sessions. This Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 12 and 13, he is
holding 18 gazing sessions at the Portland Sheraton Airport Hotel.

The agenda of a gazing session is very simple. Braco gazes at people.

“It’s like this silent gaze that goes on for seven minutes,” says Laurie Day, who called WW to tell us about Braco.

Please do not misunderstand. Braco makes no extravagant claims.

“While Braco doesn’t
call himself a healer, hundreds of thousands around the world do,” says
the website bracoamerica.com. “We invite you to read and discover cases
of chronic pain and cancers vanishing, clarity and purpose being
restored, and remarkable transformations bursting forth achieved not
just by gazing with Braco in person, and Braco’s Skype or Braco’s live
streaming sessions, but also by simply hearing a recording of Braco’s
voice.”

Yes, Braco Skypes.
Braco does not, however, talk to the media. So we cannot tell you what
it is like to have him stare at you. But we can tell you that a ticket
to a gazing session is $8. Attending all nine sessions a day is $72. A
visit to Zoomcare is $99. Do the math.

While a bargain for the uninsured, Braco is not a family practitioner.

“Each participant
must be at least 18 years old,” organizers say on bracoamerica.com, “and
no pregnant women beyond their first trimester may attend a gazing
session due to the intensity of the energy.”

[PARODY] CHAD CHATSWhitney Streed, Virginia Jones, Christian
Ricketts and other funny Portlanders perform satirical presentations in
the style of those infuriatingly twee TED nano-lectures on subjects
such as “Ending World Hunger Through Facebook Postings” and “Lincoln,
Pants and Why Your Cat Is Incapable of Love.” This mockery is long
overdue. Saratoga, 6910 N Interstate Ave., 719-5924. 8 pm. Free. 21+.

FRIDAY NOV. 11

[THEATER] MR. DARCY DREAMBOATCamille Cettina premieres her solo performance about the
power of reading. A sort of guided tour through one woman’s experience
of English literature, the show combines physical theater and
book-madness in a way that should be catnip for Portland audiences. Interstate
Firehouse Cultural Center, 5340 N Interstate Ave., ethos.org. 8 pm
Friday-Saturday and 2 pm Sunday, Nov. 11-13; 8 pm Wednesday-Saturday and
2 pm Sunday, Nov. 16-20. $16.